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Prepping Your Data Center for a Hurricane
By Rachel Ramsey TMCnet Web Editor
Tropical storm Isaac is on the verge of turning into a hurricane that could flood the coasts of four states, with storm surge and heavy rains on its way to New Orleans. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been tweeting Isaac safety tips, including turning to social media to update friends and family in the likely event that phone lines become congested. Since a hurricane or bad storm could hit anyone at anytime, here are some steps to ensure your data center can handle the weather and maximize uptime for your facility.
Not specific to hurricanes, backing up your data should be a primary step in protecting your data center. If extensive damage to your physical site is a possibility, say from our current friend Isaac, offsite backup may be a sensible step. Data backup can involve a physical storage or in the cloud, which is ideal for disaster recovery, accessing from remote locations and sharing with many people.
Other steps to take, according to a recent Data Center Journal story, include checking your backup generator, updating emergency contact lists, putting safety first, preparing for water in the form of rain or storm surge, planning for personnel comfort in the aftermath, testing remote backup sites, ensuring a plan of action for cooling, moving equipment away from windows and evacuating the facility.
Server Technology (News - Alert), a provider of data center power solutions, offers Switched power distribution units (PDUs) that can provide on/off/reboot capabilities for data centers as well as disaster recovery sites. They provide the capability to securely monitor and control cabinet power via a network for a data center or remote branch office.
The Switched cabinet power distribution units (CDUs) combine networked configuration and management with power distribution and power and environmental monitoring. Users can reboot a single or dual power server with one command, receive SNMP-based or e-mail alerts when power or environmental conditions exceed thresholds and assign access rights to user groups or individuals.
Disasters and accidents happen, but each minute of downtime costs money, creates headaches and hassle and leaves companies with unsatisfied customers. With the consistent trend of bad storms and power outages this summer and now with hurricane season in effect, make sure you take steps to prepare and ensure your own and your data center’s safety.
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Edited by Brooke Neuman
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